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Arkane is fantastic at one thing, and that is tying gameplay to story. Its narrative design is often impeccable, allowing players to remove themselves from their surroundings and be instantly transported to another world where your actions speak louder than words and actually hold great consequences.

This is seen first and foremost in Arkane’s atmospheric and thrilling stealth series Dishonored and indeed, its 2017 immersive sci-fi departure Prey. Which is why when Prey: Mooncrash was first revealed as a roguelike expansion to the main story, I was worried how it would fit in with the formula.

Most of what I was feeling was remedied after I spent just 30 minutes in its lore-steeped world. Mooncrash is one of those rare, special DLC experiences that builds and expands on the core games strengths. Prey was a novel game with a lot of fun ideas that suffered from a middling response, but Mooncrash takes the best of that experience and creates something fresh and extremely exciting.

To lay the groundwork, the player is tasked with wearing a virtual reality headset to simulate the experience of five diverse inhabitants of the Typhon-infested Pytheas Moonbase. At first, you only have one of these characters and must unlock the others through in-game tasks. When you have more than one character this extends your run, as if you die or escape you can then run the simulation with another class.

This racks up sim points, which you can spend to purchase fabricatable items like ammo, propulsion systems and survival items, most of which you discover the plans for during your adventures on the Moon. Neuromods are also permanent, meaning your upgrades consist with your class following death.

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Because of this novel set up of slowly unlocking new items, objectives and characters, Mooncrash blossoms in the most beautiful way. It deeply rewards exploration and careful tinkering with its systems, and whilst atfirstit doesn’t seem to be the case, each character has their own rich backstory and arc within the game.

Beyond that, the multiple corpses and terminals you come across are packed with dialogue and clever stories told by the environment that truly embed you into this bold new landscape.

By theendyou realize that each character’s story is intertwined and meaningful, and in a number of surprising ways actually related to the story of the original game. For a DLC expansion at £12.99, this game is far better than you would expect and crucially, a 15-hour experience if you’re keen to get stuck backin toan immersive genre.

The constant zero-gravity of the Moon adds a welcome spin to the gameplay formula. Floating around the Pytheas Moonbase is something you pick up with relative ease and fits well with the style of combat. Dashing around the initial Crater area to escape or engage the Typhon is addictive, and the propulsion system only aids the flow of combat.

Exploring every nook and cranny and reaping great rewards is Arkane’s bread and butter, and this is no different in Mooncrash. In fact, this is the core means by which you’ll discover the next character for the simulation, by dealing with side quests and exploring the randomized areas.

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Much like the originalPreythere are multiple endings to the simulation and plenty of means for you to experiment. Like a labratyou’ll constantly be scurrying into new areas to find a means of ingenious escape from the madness of the moon.

Finding the corpse of another character or escaping with them in a certain manner will let you unlock their story objective, a fully scripted and voice-acted segment which acts as a seamless overlay on the Roguelike format. The story objectives aren’t just filler either, they deal with rogue agents, child bereavements and lost lovers.

As the game progresses you also realize that each story is interwoven in some way, a narrative turn that is pulled off with pure mastery.

Plus, regardless of whether you’re conducting sabotage or safeguarding, you will be thrown into an entirely new linear situation and be forced to adapt to it within the confines of the constantly changing moonbase.

Perhaps one area requires an oxygen mask or another is ravaged by radiation. Because the game is played in Survival mode you could slip up and slam into a wall causing a broken bone or ahemorrhage, or fall prey to radiation sickness. This will divert your course and send you into a frenzy to find one of the game’s rare solvents specific to each problem.

This is evocative of one of the highlights of this expansion, the tense situations it provides. In the original Prey more often than not you had a viable arsenal to rampage through whatever you faced, so by themid-gameyou had lost that sense of fearful exploration.

Conversely, in Mooncrash you land with a distinct set of items, weapons and stats, and anything else you add on costs you precious sim points, which forces you to think differently and ramps up the fear factor. This is made worse by the fact that often you may have to clear all Typhon from an area before moving on, which, when you’re stuck with a wrench means a careful approach to every artefact in the environment.

The simulation also comes fitted with a corruption level, a time limit for your run with every level doubling down on the absurd weather conditions and enemy variety, punishing you for dilly-dallying.

This could mean spawning a poltergeist which uses the environment to attack you and can quite gruesomely force you to kill yourself with your own weapons if you don’t handle the quick-time prompt.

The end goal of the entire game is to escape with all five of its characters sequentially, so you can see how this creates an amazing atmosphere.

Having to play sequentially also reveals another tactical foil in that some characters are specialized to certain abilities. One of my runs had me hacking a terminal and then repairing a control module with separate characters to enable another one to escape when their turn came.

But then again, what if in this instance the tram connection to one of the areas is broken? Another diversion and more corruption time on the meter, creating a diversion to the central power unit.

When all of the variables are floating in your mind the game truly starts to pick your brain and make you feel the hopelessness of its environment,lendingto silly mistakes and logical impasses. Rarely do I get so much brain activity from avideogame, nevermind a small expansion.

If you weren’t already stimulated by the gameplay then the sound design is sure to get your blood pumping.

It doesn’t do your weak heart any favours when the only thing that stands between you and the security station is a brutal blunt-object fistfight between yourself and one of the games terrifying Phantoms.

I’d find myself recoiling in fear as their glitched vocal chops filled my ears, forcing me to lob an EMP charge at the Typhon Gate in order to escape the area with my body intact.

Of course every rose must have its thorn, and in thiscaseit is the load times.

Much like the original Prey, in Mooncrash you will spend a lot of time checking your phone in between loading times for each area.

This pulls you away from the deep immersion and is even more noticeable when you’re attempting to rush to complete an objective.

I also suffered from one quite monumental crash which occurred after an escape. I lost all of the progress I had made towards my escape which was a good hour of gameplay.

DespitethisI still rushed back to complete it, which shows how addictive Mooncrash can be.

The last issue comes when you complete the game and realize that you’re save-locked into the final mission outside of the simulation. Prey: Mooncrash forces you to actually start a new game to keep playing through the simulations, which means that you lose all your Neuromods, currency and fabrication plans.

I don’t know why this is the case when the game is a roguelike, but the clean slate-only option seems reductive to the game’s scope.

Hopefully, these problems can be fixed with a patch, but they were minor blips in the excellent experience as a whole.

The Verdict: 5/5

If you’re yearning for more Prey after completing it last year or just want to experience some of the finest narrative design on the market, you could not go wrong with picking up Mooncrash. For the price point, the 15 hours of gameplay to clock its story is more than worth it and there is so much replayability available for those who want to keep running the gauntlet.

THE GOOD

• Arkane’s unbeatable narrative design is in top form.•Meaningfully builds and successfully tinkers with the foundations lain by Prey.•New enemies, weapons and randomized variables compound on the tense and atmospheric gameplay.